Timeline: the Australian election

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Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd: the coup against the former PM has loomed large during the campaignAndrew Meares ASM

Sadie Gray

Last updated at 3:27PM, August 21 2010

June 23 – Julia Gillard becomes Australia’s first woman prime minister
after ousting Kevin Rudd in a party coup as his popularity crashes. In the
following days the polls give Labor 53 per cent and the Liberal coalition 47
per cent.

July 3 – Ms Gillard waters down a controversial super-tax on mining
planned by Mr Rudd.

July 9 – Ms Gillard’s tough rhetoric on immigration suffers when East
Timor’s Prime Minister says he knows nothing of her plan to locate a
processing centre for asylum seekers in his country, forcing her into a
humiliating U-turn.